Music must be a relevant component in the development of media for advertising. Music’s prevalence in advertising indicates many value the effect(s). Surely they wouldn’t spend 10-20% (or more) of their budget on something superficial. Would they?

For detailed research on the effects of music on preference, read this article regarding classical conditioning, use of music, and impact on opinion. I have highlighted points of interest.
CLICK HERE

Armed with the proof that perceptions can be swayed by the intelligent use of music, we should now start to examine the methods for application. For those who will be producing advertisements, the best advice I can provide is “avoid your subjective bias.” Just because you love classical or hip-hop or band X, does not mean you should use that music for your advertisement.

How it works
Music can be both physical and emotional stimuli. Without any expertise in music, a subject can quickly determine if the music is energetic, sad, happy, funny, etc. We all have a catalog of musical experiences and the ability to draw on these to determine meaning or subtext. The physical impact of music is derived from our nervous system’s designed response to sound stimuli. When things shift from quite to loud with a thunderous impact, it focuses our attention.

Watch this commerical, first without sound and again with the sound on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIlEv34dKVI

The music is Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. It’s a classical work that invokes intensity through percussive text and punctuated percussion. For me, the first viewing without sound doesn’t have any impact. Adding sound causes the video to take an intended shape. The clock has more drama with sound effects. The athletes develop a greater sense of action/tension/drama derived from the association to the music. Their motion is punctuated.

This video is cut to the music by the editor. This synchronizes scene transitions and/or action to the rhythm of the music. When the music climaxes with the loud cymbal crash, the video editor cuts to the flashing stadium lights. This combination of sound stimulus and visual stimulus causes the viewer to feel the moment literally. It helps conclude the story in dramatic fashion. Did you find the video with sound to have more impact on you as a viewer? I think everyone can agree that the video is more effective with music.

When to use it?
There are countless considerations when choosing the “correct” music for an ad campaign; popularity, emotional effect, humor, tempo, instrumentation, association, et al. With no clear set of rules, producers usually rely on intuition and experience to make good choices. Most importantly, producers need to understand the intention and purpose for music. Otherwise, you get this….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxEUmLk2Anw

For me, the music in this commercial is just noise. It’s not bad music but it has no clear purpose. There is also no priority between the music and dialog levels. This causes the message (the purpose of advertising) to be unclear. Music should NEVER cloud the dialog. Watch…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw1D93RmL8E

Was this message more or less clear? Our brains have a built in protection mechanism against noise whereby we tune out clouds of sound. The point being that, without clear purpose, music in advertising may produce negative effects. It might remove focus from the intended subject, it may seem cheap and generic, and in a worst case scenario the poor combination could actually make the commercial easy to ignore.

What works well?

Tight Synchronization with Action and Intention –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uasu_Wc2no

In this video the music is written after the video has been created/edited. Unlike the Gatorade video, this commercial derives it’s shape from the video’s narrative quality. The music follows the shape of the story and is written by a composer to play against the image. It’s a difficult task but a good composer can both address the emotional intention, and the mechanics of synchronizing to action, all while making music that sounds natural. This specific commercial uses many comical elements that are echoed in the music. Again, this reinforces the intended experience for the viewer. Almost like a laugh-track in a TV sitcom which is designed to lead the audience into the intended punch-line. It’s important to use music that leads the audience into the intended experience.

Emotional congruency -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD8lM-pR1b8

This commercial uses what some might call a needle-drop track. The music likely existed prior to the commercial and was selected by the production team to provide a specific ambiance. It’s then “dropped” into the video sequence by the editor. This technique is similar to the Sandy Sansing car commercial but is executed better technically as the music doesn’t fight the dialog for sonic space. It’s also light and unobtrusive. This light character matches the feeling of innocence. It has a bouncy tempo which leads toward the humor. Although there is no action and the humor doesn’t need any help to deliver the punch-line, the music provides a complementing texture.

Cinematic sound design and musical contrast –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjT1K-IlFmI

In films, sound and music are half the battle. These elements help drive certain sequences and create a more immersible experience, especially in transitional edits where the audience is “teleported” through distant locations or times. This ad has similar movements. The piano is reflective and evoking of memory. The electronica section has an action-feel. To create this, two pieces of music were likely used. The techno was selected during the edit and then a composer was hired to “underscore” (aka score) the reflective points by writing music that was custom to the form of the video.

Popular music: Capitalizing on unconditioned stimuli –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppY3DdnzQiA

At last the most obvious unconditioned stimuli and the easiest way to hit people; use what they already love and associate a product to that loved element. This ad says almost nothing about iPods or Apple; no features, no price, no clear product image. Yet these ads were a huge success. Apple simply purchases a license for the hottest new single, creates energetic fun images, and tags their logo on the end. Why? Because music is used by people to craft their identity. It states which groups they belong to and outlines their desired attitude. In this ad Apple isn’t selling iPods. Apple sells lifestyle and identity. They wager that their target market wants to associate their self-image with the images they present, one of which is their logo. The music and images are selected because they appeal to the target demographic. The intention is that the demographic will then associate the product with their identity of self and, to be more like their self construct, they will buy an Apple product.

Marketing is all about people and, with the proper selection, these people can be stimulated with music. As the research article states, this extra stimulation can make your ad more memorable and the product viewed positively.

Thanks again to Jill for letting me work with her on these projects! She’s been doing this stuff for years and I really feel like I’m just along for the ride, doing my thing with her guiding the ship. Chris O’Neill and Jill were both nominated for “Theater People of the Year” and “Theater Company of the Year.” Hands down, I think they should have won both but the competition was heavy.

I documented the work earlier this year. Check it out by CLICKING THIS LINK.

The film ended up using 24 original cues. Many of the tracks were either percussive orchestral textures, electronic beds, or a hybrid of these two approaches. A few cues are traditional melodic and theme driven but most are textural. Influences for the score came from a variety of sources that Jeremy Zerechak, the director, and I felt worked for the story arch. In the end, it felt like a real collaborative effort. Very fun!

This has been submitted to festivals and I’m hoping to see it do some interesting things. The film has lots of production value and a timely message. We’ll see!

Check out some production photos at the FaceBook Page for the Film.

The film was originally scored by Róbert Gulya of Hungary and recorded by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. There were a few scenes that required music of a pop culture origin. I used several studio musician friends to create a band for the tasks. The first scene of the film required a ripping rock/metal track with “stripper-pole” vibe. We also created a track that is an homage to the SuperFly soundtrack created by Curtis Mayfield. We also were asked to do a classic blues-rock shuffle in the style of Bob Segar.

The rhythm section was tracked at AudioWorks in Charlotte with recording engineer Mark Lambert. Brandon Norwood (drums, percussion) and Jason Poore (bass) were tight! Flute, alto sax, tenor sax, and keyboards by Mark Catoe were tracked at my studio. Finally, Ted Kocher provided trumpet and B3 from his studio in San Diego. I wrote, produced, and played guitar on all these tracks. Here’s one from the session.

The goal for their new season is a dramatic theme. They completed the edit using temp cues but those cues lacked the flow and fit necessary to really make it work. I only had two days to write, sequence, and mix but the concept was fairly clear. The show’s season kicks off June 27 and will air weekly at 8:30am Sunday, 6:30am Monday, and 1:30pm Thursday. Here’s the final mix.

The reviews I’ve seen were very good. The play is a historical piece written by Jo Clifford. It’s based on the medieval King Pedro of Portugal and his lover Ines de Castro. It’s a very dark exploration of love, betrayal, revenge, and more. The deeper qualities of this work are hard to gather on the surface but it really explores the failures of humanity.

Again I worked with Jill O’Neill on sound design and original music. The sound design was kept to a minimalist blend of drones that illustrate the tension and dark elements. Music was a combination of medieval melodies played by processed harp, flute, and percussion. Personally I was stoked with our usage of Dies Irae as source material for a few scenes. The “Day of Wrath” just seemed to fit.

The “tech” I used was similar to Macbeth… Cantablie was my host software. The majority of sounds were created using Omnisphere. I used an 88 key controller to avoid transposing and a Trigger Finger for controlling knobs, sliders, and bypass functions.

Thanks to Karl Wagner of Pixelfab Studios for the contact. It just proves that everyone you meet is important for your professional network. Karl and I meet at CAVEMODE, ate some nachos, drank a beer at Lupe’s… and now I owe you one!
Thanks K.

While it was a lot of fun, I can say that playing from 5pm-2am with an 8am start time the following day… let’s just say it isn’t something you want to do very often.

The musical variety was great! The first set was softer with many ballads. The second was more of a ruckus blues duet with some medium swing in the mix. Finally the night ended at McHales with some blues, funk, and rock!

It’s not possible to master every angle of production and the most drastic division in skill sets is visual and auditory. To date, I’ve never met a producer of visual media who was also skilled with music and audio. At best I’m hoping that these concepts and resources help you implement audio and music more effectively.

General Resources
I have no desire to reproduce documented concepts. Instead we’re going to provide a list of resources for the basis of this conversation.
Basic Music Terms
Music in Media – Ten Tips
FreeSound.Org for Music, Effects, and Other Sounds

Music
You must understand some basics of music to be effective. What are beats and where are they? How does tempo correspond to character action and edits? How does instrumentation and compositional style effect the viewer’s psychology? You also have to determine the focus. Does the music drive the scene or does it reinforce the dialog or imagery?

Music can destroy the project by removing the viewer from the experience. It’s a common statement in the production world that music should be experienced but not noticed. This doesn’t mean music can’t be the driving force. It means that the viewer should not be distracted from the object of focus. Loud music can be part of the driving force, especially when synchronized with movement. Music can also be a subtlety that UNDERSCORES an emotional feature of the focus.

Lastly… Music never saved a bad concept. It should enter, enhance the experience, and get out without ever breaking the intended focus or immersion of the viewer.

Technical Concepts
Audio, like images, comes in many file formats. The two main categories being uncompressed (wav and aiff) and compressed (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC). Which audio format is used largely depends on existing standards for that specific media.

WAV and AIFF are largely the same file type. Both are uncompressed Pulse Code Modulation data streams that use Bit Depth and Sample Rate to determine audio quality. For example, the standard for CD audio is 16bit and 44.1kHz. Typically DVD quality is 24bit and 48kHz. Lower rates are used in other media. To compare these qualities CLICK HERE.

From these files, compressed versions can be created. These offer a smaller data footprint without sacrificing as much digitization quality as sample rate or bit depth reductions. MP3 is a standard for web. Ogg Vorbis is common in game development.

Editing
Editing audio and music is a skill like any other. It requires tools and practice. If you have no audio editing program, start with Audacity. It’s free and fully featured. If you need to produce music, try Reaper. Likewise there are tons of free virtual instruments and plugins which can be found through KVR-Audio.

When editing the most important starting point is knowing about the “Zero-Crossing.” Remember, you can use the pencil tool to smooth out a rough spot if the edit isn’t perfect.

Clipping is also a disaster. It must be avoided at all costs. Digital audio is best with some headroom.

Copyright
Music is an intellectual property and its usage is restricted. Think about someone stealing your images or website design and then selling it or giving it away with themselves titled as the creator. Using music, even for educational purposes, requires a synchronization license. If your product is fixed to a physical media, you also are required to purchase a mechanical license. This can be expensive but not nearly as much as legal fees and court fines. There are also “Royalty Free” music services that allow you to purchase music for very reasonable rates. There is a large amount of high quality and affordable music available through these channels. Illegal usage is the first sign of amateur hour.

The Bad
…after weeks of watching the film with temp music, a temp can become part of the scene’s identity. It feels comfortable and something different feels awkward. This can limit the range of musical possibility for that particular scene. If a composer has a different angle it might require time to sell the concept. Also, since temp cues can be pulled from random sources, cues can be disjointed from other musical elements in the film, maybe lacking continuity with the instrumentation and themes previously stated.

Bottom line: Temp cues are a standard part of the process. They provide a great communication between the director and composer but they have hidden dangers for any film composer. Here are some more interesting reads on the subject.

Editors Guild Magazine Article
My favorite quote from this article was by Ken Karmen. Here is the expert.

Karman calls the temp a double-edged sword. “For better or for worse, temp dubs have become an integral part of modern post-production. While they do allow directors more time to explore various musical directions, they often have the effect of limiting a composer’s opportunity to approach the music with a fresh perspective. It’s not unusual for a composer to find himself in the position of having to compete…. The process engenders a kind of musical inbreeding.” While he acknowledges the importance of the temp, Hall does feel that it sometimes serves only to mask insecurities. “That’s only human nature, but sometimes the overuse of music becomes only a background and adds no emotion, ” he says. “Music should start for a specific reason, play a point of view or an emotion, and then get the hell out, not drawing the audience’s attention. Music never saved bad acting, and it never saved a bad scene either.

I also thought this excerpt from The Filmmaker’ss Handbook was great.